TV Program

Current Episode

The Forgotten People (Vanuatu)

2009-11-29

PRODUCTION #: 1144

SPEAKER: Shawn Boonstra

GUEST: Sebastian Tirtirau

 Click here to support the Vanuatu mosquito net project!

Twenty-first century civilization likes to believe that the Earth doesn’t hold many secrets anymore. Our maps have covered the world, and on Google Earth we can explore the whole planet from the comfort of an armchair. But there’s this string of islands in the South Pacific where explorers only recently discovered a group of people that has little to no contact with the outside world. Who are they, and how can you pay them a visit? Stick around, because today we’re going to answer those questions.

Historical tradition tells us that the Roman emperor Domitian tried to kill the Apostle John by boiling him in oil. When John miraculously survived that ordeal, the emperor was faced with a difficult decision. When you’re trying to get rid of somebody who refuses to die, what in the world do you do with him?

Revelation 1:9 gives us the answer in John’s own words. John writes,

“I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

The Isle of Patmos is part of an island group found in the Aegean Sea, off the coast of modern-day Turkey. When the Roman Empire failed to get rid of John by martyring him, they banished him to this desolate little rocky outpost in an effort to shut down his powerful influence on the early Christian church.

Of course, their plan to silence the apostle utterly failed, because it was on the Isle of Patmos that one of the most influential books of the Bible was written. And now, almost 2,000 years later, the influence that John has over Christianity has not diminished even a little bit. John might have been cut off from the rest of the world by a vast expanse of ocean, but that didn’t stop the work of the Gospel.

Today, you’re going to hear another incredible island story, about a group of people that has been hidden from view for centuries, isolated by the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, and cut off from the gospel story that has been changing lives all over the rest of the planet.

Our guest today is someone you already know, Sebastian Tirtirau, the president and founder of the Pilgrim Relief Society.

Shawn Boonstra: Sebastian, it’s just really great to have you on the program again. I’ve missed having you around, and I’m glad you’re here today.

Sebastian Tirtirau: Nice to see you, Shawn.

SB: You know, Sebastian, a lot has happened since we last sat down in front of TV cameras together—from a new group of believers up in the Arctic Circle, to the exciting establishment of a church among the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. I mean, exciting things are happening all over the globe. But today you have something new to report about a group of people that until recently nobody really knew anything about. Tell us a little bit about these people.

ST: About three years ago I read an article in the National Geographic about a reporter who was sent to Vanuatu to find some rare animals. As he was trying to photograph these animals, he got lost apparently, into a jungle deep into an island called Espiritu Santo. Then he and his guide happened upon a village of very interesting-looking people wearing traditional dress—ladies with the palm leaves and such. The people were speaking a language that nobody understood, and also using bone and wood tools.

SB: Ah, so this is a very primitive society.

ST: That’s right. At that time he was calling them the Mareki. But as I went there myself, because this article intrigued me, I discovered that their name is Kiai, and they speak a language called moijo. This article intrigued me and I decided to do everything I could to go there to look at these people and see how we can support them.

SB: I know that some people watching TV today are running for their encyclopedia or they’re online checking the CIA world fact book. Where is Vanuatu?

ST: Vanuatu is an archipelago between Fiji and New Caledonia.

SB: So it’s the South Pacific.

ST: It’s the South Pacific, south of the Equator, it’s about three hours’ flight from Australia. Many Australians recognize this place as a beautiful honeymoon place, because they have several islands that have resorts, and it’s a beautiful South Pacific place to go for vacation.

SB: So some of the islands are vacation spots.

ST: That’s right.

SB: Western, and even Eastern civilization, have been getting there for some time.

ST: Absolutely. It’s just that their geography. This gentleman in the National Geographic article was saying that they are imprisoned by geography, and I only understood this once I got to Vanuatu. And it’s interesting to read that and see that, because it is true. These people, although they are on small islands, because of their geography, they are very isolated. And that’s why Kiai didn’t have a chance to be known or documented much in the outside world.

SB: How did you get there? Did you go Singapore Airlines first class and stay in the lounge when you arrived in Vanuatu? (laughs)

ST: Well, in that stage, October 2007, my brother and I were discussing how we could get to Vanuatu, and we knew by research that some of the islands are approachable only by boat. So my brother said, “Look, I’m willing to sail on my sailboat.” He has a 30-foot sailboat.

SB: Now, let’s be clear, for those who might not sail, 30 feet for the Pacific Ocean is not a big sailboat.

SB: Well, no boat is big for the Pacific Ocean. I mean, you need a container ship to feel comfortable. But a 30-foot boat is stretching it. Even experienced sailors look at a 30-foot boat and they say, “Umm, it’s risky to cross the Pacific.”

My brother crossed it from San Diego, California from April 2007 to October 2007. He went through all the major Pacific islands, through storms. It was a tremendous sacrifice—several months away from his family, it’s quite a lot time. But I met him in Fiji; I flew to Fiji.

SB: So you weren’t with him from San Diego. He did that first stretch alone.

ST: He did that, yeah. And then we met in Fiji, and in Fiji we sailed together to Vanuatu. We arrived in Vanuatu, the first island from Fiji, the island of Tanna. The experience of landfall is something that gives you tremendous joy. Because when I saw the island of Tanna, I promised, I said to my brother, “The first person I see on this island, I’m going to hug him.” And the first person I saw—I saw a man on the beach—and I went to him to hug him, and he became a very good friend of mine afterward.

He (Weddy) was a local, the brother of the chief, and he was quite surprised I hugged him, such a stranger suddenly coming to hug him, but I had to keep my promise. So we met this amazing village called Port Resolution in the island of Tanna, and we started right away to ask, “Do you know anything about this newly discovered tribe?” and so forth. Nobody knew anything. And then the friend I told you that we met there, he told me, “You know, I grew up on many of these islands, I know many of these islands. If you want, I can come with you and we can explore together.” I was very happy.

SB: Isn’t it amazing how God always puts somebody in your path who knows where to go or how to speak or—there’s always somebody waiting, isn’t there?

ST: Exactly. And Weddy speaks eight languages. Vanuatu has 110 languages.

SB: Wow, 110.

ST: Yes, 110 languages. But most people speak French, English and Bislama, which are the national languages. And then, of course, some of the dialects. But Weddy said, “I have knowledge of most of these islands. I’m sure we’re going to find them.” So Weddy came with us, and from island to island we explored until we came to the island of Espiritu Santo. And we were in the market there, because in the market everything happens. People from all tribes come to trade fruit and vegetables. So we were asking in the market if anybody knows about the Kiai. And one lady said, “You see that person there, he’s a Kiai.”

SB: There was actually somebody there.

ST: There was a Kiai man. He was dressed in his traditional Kiai dress. And Weddy came to him, and through another man who spoke his dialect, we understood each other. And he said, “You know what? I can’t come with you right now, but I’m going to help you with some people to take you to my village.” And that’s how we started our journey deep into the Santo jungles.

SB: What’s it like as you’re on your way in to meet the Kiai people?

ST: Well, I went alone with Weddy, and six porters that carried out bags. I had a load of mosquito nets and tools and so forth, for these people, not knowing what to expect from them. So we started to climb what I thought in the beginning to be a walk in the park. It was a three-day trip through several mountain ranges with an inclination of 60 degrees. The heat, the density of the jungle and the humidity made me so exhausted that by the end of the first day I was completely wiped out.

SB: Much different than out at sea where you have the breeze of the Pacific!

ST: It was very hot, and these people took care of me, as I’ve never imagined before. You see, they cannot drink the water there deep in the jungle, because the moment the water touches the ground it becomes poison.

SB: This is one of the big challenges they face is fresh drinking water.

ST: It’s malaria, dengue fever and fresh drinking water. And they give me food, their own food. They allow me to sleep in their hut. They brought water from very, very far away for me to brush my teeth, wash my feet, you know, things that they don’t do usually, they did it for me. Because they have this feeling that I came with a purpose there. And I slowly explained to them what I do, who I am and so forth, and we connected a little bit in a relationship then.

Behind me [illustration on the screen] you can see the mountains of deep central Santo Island. These people are hidden somewhere here, all the villages, you can’t see them right now. They live in an amazing terrain, extremely challenging to get to them. And yet, they have managed to survive here without any needs from outside until now. The greatest problem that they have is getting water, because they have to walk several mountain ranges to get a little bit of water for drinking, but their need is much greater; their children need to be washed, they need to cook, they need to use water in much greater quantity. This is how we’re trying to help here. I am completely impressed and awed at the size of this jungle and how they go barefoot all over the place and climb the trees and they survive by hunting in the jungle for everything they need here in Vanuatu.

SB: What were the conditions like among those people, what are their needs and what is it that you were able to do for them, or at least what you were able to see that we could do for them by way of meeting needs?

ST: Every time I go to a new tribe or a new culture, my lifelong principle is that I do not come with my agenda, preconceived ideas in their tribe. I want to see what their need is and what they’re asking me to do for them. So, the same went regarding this tribe. When I got to the Kiai, the first couple days we spent just getting to know each other. I saw their villages, I played with their children and so forth, until slowly it started to emerge that their greatest need first of all is that 30% of their children are dying of malaria and dengue fever.

SB: Thirty, that’s nearly a third, are dying of malaria and dengue fever, and of course, the malaria, how do they get that?

ST: Mosquitoes at dusk and dawn and during the night, they have very long huts with no windows in their attempt to protect their children from that, and they build fires inside as well.

SB: To smoke out the mosquitoes.

ST: That’s right, but even like this, 30% of the children are dying of malaria. Now, I looked at some statistics and Vanuatu 90,000 children every year are affected by malaria.

SB: That’s 90,000 children affected.

ST: And dengue fever, which is also brought by the mosquito. Then they said that they have huge problems with water and as long as their existence, they hoped that somebody would come and help them to give them better water. Because they have been sending a young boy every morning, with a stick on his neck with two big containers, to go about six or seven hours to an under-mountain stream in which they take good water to drink and bring it back up. Then the next morning they do the same thing. But it’s an exhausting activity and they want to have a better way of dealing with water. So that’s the second need (Ed. note: And help is now being provided to meet this need.)

The third one, which was very interesting, was that the chief came to me and said, “We are custom here and we like custom.” Custom is their traditional way of seeing things and the way that they see life. But he said, “We know that our children were not going to live in a world like ours.” For some reason they know that. And he told me, “We would love for somebody to come help us to educate our children. To learn another language.”

SB: They sense they’re about to move out of their primitive existence into something else. On that note, let me ask you an important question, because it’s something I hear all the time. Here in the West you hear people saying, “We should never interfere with these primitive cultures,” or “They’re virtually a stone-age culture. We should never interfere. We shouldn’t make contact. We shouldn’t interfere with their utopian existence.” What do you say to that?

ST: I’ve had those questions before and to tell the truth, my answer is very simple. I have a moral responsibility in front of God to take care of the orphans and of the hungry and of the displaced and discriminated against and so forth. I have a moral responsibility that when I see a problem in a human being, to try and help him with that. That’s number one.

Secondly, I think we sometime make the mistake of comparing a human being in a situation with the situation of a dolphin or of a killer whale, that we should just look and let nature take its course. We’re not talking about dolphins here. We’re talking about human beings and a third of their children are dying of malaria. And I'm here in front of them with a possibility of saving that 30%, and then I’m not going to interfere?

And thirdly, I never come to change their life and their culture. They ask me, “Could you help us get a better life? Could you help us improve our situation because we don’t want our children to die? We want a better life.” So they come up with this and when they request this, I'm going to do it. It’s a moral responsibility.

SB: Thirty percent of the children are dying of malaria or dengue fever or mosquito-borne disease. My question is, what can we do about them? And I know some people are wondering, “Well, if all there kids are dying, what can they do to be a part of this and help save those kids?”

ST: The simple solution, which really saves this 30%—or 90,000 children in Vanuatu—that are affected by malaria is simple mosquito net.

SB: So it’s not high tech. It’s not a pharmaceutical or an expensive solution. It is really very simple.

ST: That’s right.

SB: Tell me about the mosquito nets. First of all, how many kids can sleep under a mosquito net if I want to send one over there?

ST: Right now, we’re basing our mosquito nets on large mosquito nets. We deliver them to every house and about three or four children can sleep under the mosquito net every night, which means. The average family has between three and five children, so we can put their children under mosquito nets, and when they go to bed they will not be bitten by the mosquitoes that bring malaria and dengue fever.

Now, this simple solution takes care of a lot of their problems. And I never understood until I gave some to them. I gave two mosquito nets to a mother, and she had a sister and both of them had eight kids. So I gave them two mosquito nets. I never understood why such a small thing can create such a great joy. This lady almost burst into tears that somebody chose her to give a mosquito net. Now, these are very simple. It’s a $10 mosquito net.

SB: Ten dollars. I hope you heard that. We have so much here in the West, and it only takes $10 to save four kids. Bringing up those kids under a mosquito net, they stand a real chance of making it to adulthood and enjoying a life and even getting to know God. Ten dollars saves four kids.

If you start doing the math, it’s so easy to make people happy. You realize that 40 kids can be saved for $100. You can save 100 kids for $250.

Ten dollars gets a mosquito net that will save four kids. So you’re meeting needs, but you’re also there to let them know that God loves them. I know that because I know that about you, Sebastian. Let me ask you, how do you approach this when you get to a place like Vanuatu? How do you break into the story of a gospel or start talking about God?

ST: One thing about us missionaries that I had to understand and learn the hard way is that God already arrived in the place you’re going long before you come there.

SB: That’s a biblical principle, Acts chapter 14, I think. Paul and Barnabas are in Lystra and they tell that group of people, “God has left himself without witness. He got here before we did.” That’s been your experience?

ST: The Holy Spirit opens the hearts of these people, and not only that but in every remote tribe I’ve been in, some kind of seed of the biblical truth has been planted. Through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we connect to that seed and open up a whole Bible-preaching experience.

When I got to the Kiai people, I was walking up the hill with the chief. On that part of Santo, the island, because of the volcano, there was not much rock lying around. And as we were climbing up a slope, he shows me this huge diamond-shaped rock on the right, sitting on the side of the mountain. And he said, “You know what that is?” And I said, “Tell me.” And he said, “This is Noah’s ark.”

SB: He called it Noah’s ark?

ST: I heard from his voice, “Noah.”

SB: This is a civilization that’s been isolated from the rest of us for centuries, only recently discovered, and he called it Noah’s ark.

ST: Noah’s ark. And I stopped, stunned, and I ask again, “What did you say? What do you mean, Noah’s ark? How do you know about Noah’s ark?” And he looks at me, he said, “Do you know about Noah’s ark?” And I said, “Yes, I do, from the Bible.” And he asked me, “What’s a Bible?”

SB: Amazing. Utterly amazing.

ST: And this is how the Lord opens each subject to these people without me wanting to go there and Christian-ize them or proselytizing and so forth, like some people claim that we go to the tribe and we destroy their culture. No, it’s through their interest and their personal spiritual quest that they ask for more knowledge.

So then I asked him, “But tell me your story. How do you know it?” And he said, “Well, our oral tradition tells us that when the Creator destroyed the planet by water, Noah and his family went in the ark,” and he tells me there were seven people, and I said, “No, there were eight.” And he starts smiling and he said, “How do you know there were eight?” And I said, “Well the Bible says eight.” “No, no, no, no, your Bible is younger than us. We are much more ancient than you, so we tell you it was seven.” Anyway, this is very small detail.

SB: I'm dying to know who was missing in their ark!

ST: But they said, “It landed on our mountain after the flood. It broke in two, because the other half is somewhere on another mountain, and this landed here. But we know this story. From the beginning, this is the story of our beginning.” And that made me think again that truly God doesn’t leave Himself without a witness in any culture. And every culture will listen or will find out about Him some way.

SB: There’s actually not a culture on earth that doesn’t have some memory of the God of the Bible.

ST: I don’t believe so, no.

SB: It’s remarkable.

ST: So, in spite of criticism that we go and Christian-ize people without even thinking of their culture, I don’t think it’s founded on reality. Because in reality these people know from the Holy Spirit of the existence and plan of God.

SB: Amazing. To recap, they have this huge need. People can help. One of the first primary needs, of course, is help because these kids are dying. A $10 mosquito net makes all the difference in the world.

ST: And to make it clear, these mosquito nets are distributed all over the archipelago, all over the country, not just to the Kiai, because every island has problems with malaria and so forth. So we help a lot more islands than just Santo.

SB: It’s spread all over. Sebastian, God bless you for what you’re doing and thank you for coming on the program again today.

ST: Thanks very much.

SB: Let me ask you an important question. You only get to live once on planet Earth, and right now the clock is ticking. You’re faced with the choice of simply putting in your time or doing something magnificent with the one and only lifetime that God has given you. We can live for the bottom line, we can live to make sure we never suffer inconvenience or discomfort. But when it comes time to cross life’s finish line, is looking back over that kind of life going to make you happy with the way you spent your time? More importantly, is that kind of life going to put a smile on the face of God?

Naturally not everybody’s been called to hop on a sailboat and physically go to the islands of Vanuatu. But that doesn’t mean that you couldn’t participate. You can go in a very real way. Right now we need your help. As many as 30% of the kids among the Kiai people die from malaria before they reach adulthood. They never get a chance at life and they die before we can show them a God who truly loves them.

It only takes $10 to save the lives of four kids. It’s not high tech. It’s not fancy, but it works. Four kids can fit under one net, which means that for $100 you could save 40 kids. For $250 you can save 100.

I know my own 9-year-old daughter recently had a birthday party and she thought of a great idea. “Daddy,” she said, “I don’t need any more toys. Can I ask my friends to bring $10 for a mosquito net instead?” You know something? That really worked. Everybody had a great time at that party and a 9-year-old girl managed to raise the first $425 we need to save these children. You can make a huge difference and it really doesn’t take much. Pick up the phone (1-800-253-3000), visit our website, or mail it to us at It Is Written, Box O, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359. Thank you for your tax-deductible gift. It will save lives!

Scriptures Used in “The Forgotten People (Vanuatu)”

“I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation andkingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is calledPatmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
—Revelation 1:9